Generally, the harvesting of produce, including in particular lettuce, involves the manual removal of produce from the field. Typically, a farmworker will walk through a field with a cutting tool such as a knife, and manually detach the exposed lettuce head from its root. The lettuce head will then be delivered for further processing, perhaps to a conveyor belt on a self-propelled harvester travelling through the field alongside the worker.
There are several drawbacks with the prior art methods, however. They are labor-intensive and, because of the use of a sharp cutting implement by the workers, potentially dangerous. A need therefore existed to reduce the labor-intensity of the produce harvesting process, and also to make that process safer. Preferably, account should also be taken of other steps necessary in the harvesting process beyond the removal of the produce from the ground, including inspection, washing, and elevation of the produce to a container. The present invention satisfies this need and provides other, related advantages.